And This is My Last Word

K. Padmakumar *

One day our eyes met across the road
At noon when pedestrians were hardly seen
And it came as a bolt from the blue.
You looked at me
As if the meeting took you unawares,
A shy uneasiness played on your face
And I also looked at you in surprise.
In the dark sea of life
The moment raised itself time and again
And many unnamed thoughts disturbed me.
It was the first meeting of this birth
But I felt as if I had come across something
under the cover of darkness,
When I saw your fresh face
I felt as if I had unexpectedly remembered
something forgotten
When I saw you the stranger
Sometimes I thought
As if an old dream from the previous
incarnation had been demystified.
At the same time I took it
as a figment of my imagination
I pondered about it because of
my weakness for her;
Yesterday's beauty – that's so yesterday!

The moment I saw you
among complete strangers
I was struck with wonder,
And I know it for real,
you were also struck with wonder.
Had I gone stark raving mad
I would call and say something to you.
Away you went awkwardly
and I also felt my way
Without getting the feel of your
corporeal presence.

At dead of night
At the moment the moonlight went for a stroll,
When I was looking at moonlit patches
through the trees,
When I got the feel of late night breeze,
When dry leaves moved around in the trees
I got a surprise and looked round
How intimate you were to my heart!

Once also you came all of a sudden
With the first ray of the morning
And you stood at the courtyard like in a dream,
I do not know why you sat down
the moment you saw me
Like mimosa grown in the wild
And ripe seeds of balsam
And your face became one with the fresh light
of the morning.

Neither flower nor fruit you are
That can be picked to decorate or to eat,
Wherefrom you came all of a sudden
And got immersed in life
and had become a reality?
This is beyond the reach of dreams.
In the sacred games of human beings
She sat before me like a mere child
Unabashedly though fully grown up.

When light and darkness changed places
at dawn
I could feel the presence of a living being,
You called me clearly
At that lovely moment,
My senses were fully awakened
And I saw a rare sight of life,
The sweet sound of flute
Took my body and soul to Brindavan.

We were moving on the razor's edge
Trying to maintain a delicate balance
In this wasted journey of life;
But one day we sat together quietly
And it had a lasting effect beyond
life and death.
There and then I saw you stealing
a glance of love
Let out in an unguarded moment of yours
And this, I do believe, is my last word.

(Translated from his late father's Manipuri poem Masina Eigi Aroiba Wani by K. Radhakumar)